Inflation Announcements and Social Dynamics

We propose a new framework for understanding the effectiveness of central bank announcements when firms have heterogeneous inflation expectations. Expectations are updated through social dynamics and, with heterogeneity, not all firms choose to operate, putting downward pressure on realized inflation. Our model rationalizes why countries stuck at the zero lower bound have had a hard time increasing inflation without being aggressive. The same model also predicts that announcing an abrupt target to disinflate will cause inflation to undershoot the target, whereas announcing gradual targets will not. We present new empirical evidence that corroborates this prediction.     

Measuring Inflation Expectations Uncertainty Using High‐Frequency Data

Inflation expectations play a key role in determining future economic outcomes. The associated uncertainty provides a direct gauge of how well‐anchored the inflation expectations are. We construct a model‐based measure of inflation expectations uncertainty by augmenting a standard unobserved components model of inflation with information from noisy and possibly biased measures of inflation expectations obtained from financial markets. This new model‐based measure of inflation expectations uncertainty is more accurately estimated and can provide valuable information for policymakers. Using U.S. data, we find significant changes in inflation expectations uncertainty during the Great Recession.     

中国的通货膨胀:一个新开放宏观模型及其检验

本文基于新开放宏观经济学(NOEM)框架分析了中国的通货膨胀问题,探讨了导致通货膨胀的原因以及各原因之间的相互关系,并利用贝叶斯向量自回归模型(BVAR)进行了计量检验。发现新开放宏观模型对中国的通货膨胀有较好的解释力,货币供应量无论是在长期还是短期都是诱发通货膨胀的主要原因,而外部冲击向中国的传导路径是受阻碍的。     

New Measures for Inflation Uncertainty and Disagreement from Treasury Auctions: Alternative to Surveys

In this article, we propose a novel methodology to construct new uncertainty and disagreement measures for the long-term inflation rate with the use of micro data of Treasury auctions. We employ individual bids submitted in Treasury auctions for nominal and inflation indexed bonds. We argue that these newly formed indicators do not have the problems associated with the survey and market-based uncertainty and disagreement measures. We also focus on the interactions of our proposed measures for inflation rate by comparing the measures commonly used in the literature. The findings of this article are believed to enhance the effectiveness of policy-making by introducing new proxies for crucial economic variables and also by providing the opportunity for other emerging economies with inadequate surveys to construct historical uncertainty and disagreement measures for inflation rates.     

通货膨胀目标制理论与实证研究综述

通货膨胀目标制是20世纪90年代开始实施的一种新型的货币政策理论,各国金融经济学家们对这种新的理论框架开展了大量的理论和实证研究.通货膨胀目标制通过钉住通货膨胀可以减低通货膨胀预期、增强中央银行透明度和责任度,从而提高货币政策和中央银行的可信度,这对新兴市场和转型国家的宏观经济发展和货币政策目标的选择具有一定的借鉴意义.     

Nowcasting U.S. Headline and Core Inflation

Forecasting future inflation and nowcasting contemporaneous inflation are difficult. We propose a new and parsimonious model for nowcasting headline and core inflation in the U.S. consumer price index and price index for personal consumption expenditures that relies on relatively few variables. The model's nowcasting accuracy improves as information accumulates over a month or quarter, outperforming statistical benchmarks. In real‐time comparisons, the model's headline inflation nowcasts substantially outperform those from the Blue Chip consensus and the Survey of Professional Forecasters. Across all four inflation measures, the model's nowcasting accuracy is comparable to that of the Federal Reserve Board's Greenbook.     

纳入资产价格的我国通货膨胀指数研究

通过比较分析1998～2010年纳入房地产、股票和大宗商品等资产价格的通货膨胀指数与当前通货膨胀指数之间的异同,得到以下结论:目前通胀水平被低估,尤其是在通胀高企的时期;加入房地产、大宗商品价格的通胀指数与目前通胀指数具有高度的一致性,应将房地产价格波动纳入当前通胀指数,并部分考虑大宗商品价格指数的影响;动态因子法是构建纳入资产价格的通货膨胀测度的较好方法。     

Dynamics of inflation in India: does the new inflation bias hypothesis provide an explanation?

In this paper we estimate the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) policy response to supply shocks. In particular, we exploit an important strand of the recent literature (the new inflation bias hypothesis) to understand why the two frequently cited measures of inflation in India have persistently diverged in recent years. Specifically, it is argued that the difference in coverage and weighting pattern between the indices interacting with policies pursued by the RBI to control its preferred inflation measure WPI turned out to be inappropriate with respect to stabilizing expected CPI-IW inflation. This in turn provides an explanation for the persistent divergence between the two measures of inflation.     

The reset inflation puzzle and the heterogeneity in price stickiness

New Keynesian models have been criticised on the grounds that they require implausibly large price shocks to explain inflation. Bils et al. (2012) show that, while these shocks are needed to reduce the excessive inflation persistence generated by the models, they give rise to unrealistically volatile reset price inflation. This paper shows that introducing heterogeneity in price stickiness in the models overcomes these criticisms directed at them. The incorporation of heterogeneity in price stickiness reduces the need for large price shocks. With smaller price shocks, the new model comes close to matching the data on reset inflation.     

A New Time‐Varying Parameter Autoregressive Model for U.S. Inflation Expectations

We study the evolution of U.S. inflation by means of a new noncausal autoregressive model with time‐varying parameters that outperforms the corresponding causal and constant‐parameter noncausal models in terms of fit and forecast accuracy. Our model also beats the unobserved component stochastic volatility (UCSV) model, one of the best‐performing univariate inflation forecasting models, in terms of both point and density forecasts. We also show how the new Keynesian Phillips curve can be estimated based on our noncausal model. Both expected and lagged inflation turn out important, but the former dominates in determining the current inflation.     

通货膨胀目标制:理论、实践及其启示——兼论我国房地产市场调控

通货膨胀目标是由官方公开宣布未来一段时间内需要达到的通货膨胀目标或区间,明确承认低的、稳定的通货膨胀率是货币政策的首要长期目标。从长期看,中央银行可以产生系统的影响的惟一宏观经济变量只有通货膨胀率。没有中央银行的默许,通货膨胀就无法扎根。虽然石油价格冲击、持久干旱、升高的税收或者新的政府法令都有可能推动物价指数上升,除非中央银行对此不闻不问,否则,通货膨胀是不可能长久存在的。     

Trend Inflation and the Nature of Structural Breaks in the New Keynesian Phillips Curve

We show that with a unit root in inflation, the new Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) implies an unobserved components model with a stochastic trend component and an inflation gap. Our empirical results suggest that with an increase in trend inflation during the Great Inflation, the response of inflation to real economic activity decreases and the persistence of the inflation gap increases due to an increase in the persistence of the unobserved stationary component. These results are in line with the predictions of Cogley and Sbordone ( 2008 ), who show that the coefficients of the NKPC are functions of time‐varying trend inflation.     

Real Rates, Expected Inflation, and Inflation Risk Premia

This paper studies the term structure of real rates, expected inflation, and inflation risk premia. The analysis is based on new estimates of the real term structure derived from the prices of index-linked and nominal debt in the U.K. I find strong evidence to reject both the Fisher Hypothesis and versions of the Expectations Hypothesis for real rates. The estimates also imply the presence of time-varying inflation risk premia throughout the term structure.     

Inflation Dynamics and the New Keynesian Phillips Curve in Four Central European Countries

This paper seeks to shed light on the inflation dynamics of four new central European EU members: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. To this end, the New Keynesian Phillips curve augmented for open economies is estimated and additional statistical tests applied, with the following results: (1) the claim of New Keynesians that the real marginal cost is the main inflation-forcing variable is fragile, (2) inflation seems to be driven by external factors, and (3) although inflation holds a forward-looking component, the backward-looking component is substantial. An intuitive explanation for higher inflation persistence may be adaptive, rather than rational price setting of local firms.     

Convergence of Euro area inflation rates

We study the behavior of inflation rates among the 12 initial Euro countries in order to test whether and when the group convergence initially dictated by the Maastricht treaty and now by the ECB, occurs. We also assess the impact of events such as the advent of the Euro and the 2008 financial crisis. Due to the small size of the estimation sample, we propose a new procedure that increases the power of panel unit root tests when used to study group-wise convergence. Applying this new procedure to Euro area inflation, we find strong and lasting evidence of convergence among the inflation rates soon after the implementation of the Maastricht treaty and a dramatic decrease in the persistence of the differential after the occurrence of the single currency. After the 2008 crisis, Euro area inflation rates follow the ECB's price stability benchmark, although Greece reports relatively higher inflation.     

Owner-occupied homes,income-producing properties,and REITs as inflation hedges: Empirical findings

New evidence on the correlation patterns of various real estate returns with inflation is presented. Returns on a wide array of real estate, nonresidential as well as residential, are investigated. Stock and bond returns are also analyzed for comparison purposes. Extensive heterogeneity is found in real estate return correlations with inflation. Nonresidential property returns are most strongly positively correlated with inflation, although the appreciation in owner-occupied homes is also positively associated with inflation. However, REIT returns tend to be strongly negatively correlated with inflation. In this respect, they look more like traditional stocks and bonds than any other type of real estate. Finally, new evidence on return correlations with energy prices is also presented. Nonresidential real estate performs best here, too, although no real estate asset fully compensates investors for adverse energy price shocks.     

Inflation volatility effects on the allocation of bank loans

This paper examines the distortionary effects of inflation volatility on the allocation of bank loans. We argue that inflation volatility would render bank managers to behave more conservatively in issuing new loans. In contrast, when inflation volatility is low, bank managers would have the latitude to lend more idiosyncratically. Using a large panel of commercial bank data gathered from 15 countries, we provide support for our hypothesis by demonstrating a strong negative relation between inflation volatility and the dispersion of loans-to-assets ratio. Similar results are obtained when we split the sample between EU and non-EU country groups. The robustness of our findings is confirmed by a battery of sensitivity checks.     

Asymmetric price adjustment in the small

Analyses of a large retail scanner price data set reveal a new and surprising regularity - small price increases occur more frequently than small price decreases for price changes of up to 10¢. That is, we find asymmetric price adjustment “in the small.” Furthermore, it turns out that inflation offers only a partial explanation for the finding. Indeed, substantial proportion of the asymmetry remains unexplained, even after accounting for the inflation. For example, the asymmetry holds also after excluding periods of inflation from the data, and even for products whose price had not increased. The findings hold for different aggregate and disaggregate measures of inflation and also after allowing for lagged price adjustments.     

Real Wage Rigidities and the New Keynesian Model

Most central banks perceive a trade‐off between stabilizing inflation and stabilizing the gap between output and desired output. However, the standard new Keynesian framework implies no such trade‐off. In that framework, stabilizing inflation is equivalent to stabilizing the welfare‐relevant output gap. In this paper, we argue that this property of the new Keynesian framework, which we call the divine coincidence, is due to a special feature of the model: the absence of nontrivial real imperfections. We focus on one such real imperfection, namely, real wage rigidities. When the baseline new Keynesian model is extended to allow for real wage rigidities, the divine coincidence disappears, and central banks indeed face a trade‐off between stabilizing inflation and stabilizing the welfare‐relevant output gap. We show that not only does the extended model have more realistic normative implications, but it also has appealing positive properties. In particular, it provides a natural interpretation for the dynamic inflation–unemployment relation found in the data.     

Inflation in New EU Member States: A Domestically or Externally Driven Phenomenon?

This article empirically analyzes the domestic and external inflation determinants for eight non-eurozone new EU member states (NMS), using a structural vector autoregression model. Results indicate that foreign shocks are a major factor in explaining inflation dynamics in the medium run, while the short-run inflation dynamics are mainly influenced by domestic shocks. Moreover, the importance of the foreign inflation component has had a rising trend in the precrisis period in all NMS and mostly coincided with their accession to the EU. This trend ended with the onset of the global financial crisis. The study implicates the need to augment the classical Taylor rule with foreign factors in the case of small open economies.